A Reading,
At first there is only silence to welcome the king and his lady into the tent. The mare saying nothing more than the first words she says every time the flaps of her tent shift with more than just the wind. Only the whisper of satin and skin breaks up the heavy space between the reader and her guests.
But the moment they speak her eyes dance cleverly and her teeth flash a little like scales in the dark shadow of her lips. At her back a single candle flickers when she suddenly shifts her body across her own pile of blood-red and steel pillows. The table between them almost seems small when she arches her neck across it like a trellis across an altar. “Ah,” The word is soft enough to be nothing more than a stream of air in her old, weak lungs. But it's not, it's not.
“Being strong and being prepared are often not the same thing, no matter how steady the heart wants to be.” She says and the cards start to shift across the table in long loops of paper and paint that look like snakes in the strange-light of her tent. “But I will see what the cards and fates care to share with you.” It's almost easy to see why she's the only shed-star reading the cards tonight (even though for tonight she almost choose to read her bones and entrails instead).
Out of the looping card-snakes three cards turn over. They are stark and bright against the dark backsides of the other cards. The first has the word justice scrawled across it. The second has a mother swan perched on a chalice. The last card is painted with three sticks tied in a triangle with a sunrise between them.
“Karma and fate are hovering over you, heavy and waiting. They could smother you or pull back like the night to reveal the sun. You are not the only ones to have decision is make in the upcoming challenges not is it only your choices that will effect you. It would be wise to remember free-will is a dangerous blessing.” The mare closes her eyes for a moment. The fates and the cards are loud tonight, loud enough to rattle her old bones.
“Do not forget how you love each other. Be there for each other and think perhaps of swans and how they protect their mates and their chicks.” For the first time since they entered her tent the shed-star smiles. “I have never met a swan who was not peaceful at heart but as fierce as a sword when pushed. Go.” She says and her eyes close and her chin drops to the table. “Karma will not smother you this summer.”
@Eulalie @Somnus
But the moment they speak her eyes dance cleverly and her teeth flash a little like scales in the dark shadow of her lips. At her back a single candle flickers when she suddenly shifts her body across her own pile of blood-red and steel pillows. The table between them almost seems small when she arches her neck across it like a trellis across an altar. “Ah,” The word is soft enough to be nothing more than a stream of air in her old, weak lungs. But it's not, it's not.
“Being strong and being prepared are often not the same thing, no matter how steady the heart wants to be.” She says and the cards start to shift across the table in long loops of paper and paint that look like snakes in the strange-light of her tent. “But I will see what the cards and fates care to share with you.” It's almost easy to see why she's the only shed-star reading the cards tonight (even though for tonight she almost choose to read her bones and entrails instead).
Out of the looping card-snakes three cards turn over. They are stark and bright against the dark backsides of the other cards. The first has the word justice scrawled across it. The second has a mother swan perched on a chalice. The last card is painted with three sticks tied in a triangle with a sunrise between them.
“Karma and fate are hovering over you, heavy and waiting. They could smother you or pull back like the night to reveal the sun. You are not the only ones to have decision is make in the upcoming challenges not is it only your choices that will effect you. It would be wise to remember free-will is a dangerous blessing.” The mare closes her eyes for a moment. The fates and the cards are loud tonight, loud enough to rattle her old bones.
“Do not forget how you love each other. Be there for each other and think perhaps of swans and how they protect their mates and their chicks.” For the first time since they entered her tent the shed-star smiles. “I have never met a swan who was not peaceful at heart but as fierce as a sword when pushed. Go.” She says and her eyes close and her chin drops to the table. “Karma will not smother you this summer.”
@Eulalie @Somnus
